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Latest Comments by Smaloki
Kingdoms and Castles released with day-1 Linux support, some thoughts
24 Jul 2017 at 6:49 pm UTC

Quoting: Crazy PenguinGates are kinda useless in the game, as you can not close them. Which is kinda stupid whilst an attack!!!. It has an close option, but instead of closing the gate it is deactivating it. Seriously? WTF?

Another thing I have encountered is the distribution of resources. I have tons of stuff in small storages lying around, which is not transported to the big ones in the city. Also it is better to have Blacksmith close to the mine & charcoals, otherwise they have shortage all the times. Any ideas how this works? I have tried several eays but nothing has worked so far.

Some my subjects complain (red building) that they don't get anything to eat or charcoal, but the market over the street has enough stuff available! WTF!?

Not to mention that the status of my subjects happiness has no live update. I have to switch it off & on again to get an update :(. Then there is no information about what and how much stuff is stored in the storages.

This game has an huge potential, fantastic graphics but right now it has lots of shortcomings. Can't recommend it at the moment.
In my experience, the gates are fully automated (which makes sense, considering each gate has two peasants assigned as guards). While the gate always looks as though it's opened, enemies cannot walk trough, only your subjects can. No player interaction required.

As far as resource distribution goes, I haven't really had any issues.

Newly gained resources are usually stored on the closest stockpile (except for food, which is also stored in granaries, marketplaces and houses; and charcoal, which is stored in marketplaces and houses). Unless there's a new building project nearby, in which case required resources may be brought there right away.
Maybe you have too many randomly distributed stockpiles? I haven't encountered any real issues with this. I tend to designate one or two areas of my island as industrial areas, where I have quarries, mines, and forresters as well as craftsmen (smithies, charcoal makers, etc.). And then, in these areas, I have an appropriate amount of stockpiles.
Well, speaking of craftsmen: I keep the mason(s) in or close to the residential areas, but I don't know if this actually matters all that much. There's usually quite a few years between major catastrophes, so plenty of time for a mason to fix all damaged buildings before the next fire.

For houses that are far away from your keep and your fields, you have to make sure there is always a marketplace close by—otherwise the heads of household may have to walk ridiculous distances to get food and charcoal, and their respective houses run out before they've returned (which reflects very negatively on their happiness value). Each marketplace has 10 workers, whose sole purpose it is to ensure that there is always some food and charcoal stored in the market. This way, the other peasants have more time for their own work and they don't have to go hungry (unless you flat-out don't produce enough food).

Kingdoms and Castles released with day-1 Linux support, some thoughts
24 Jul 2017 at 1:48 pm UTC Likes: 3

The fact that everyone compares this to Settlers really drives home how little international success the earlier Anno games had.

To me, this is pretty much an updated Anno 1602. The are fewer buildings and resources (at least in its current state), but some features are more developed (like the much more in-depth castle-building, more reminiscent of the later Anno games and other, similar game series).

I'm absolutely enamoured with this game! Although that's probably largely due to nostalgia, since Anno 1602 ("1602 A.D." in the US) was one of my favourite games growing up. But even on its own, this game is somewhat addictive to me… I love constantly improving my city, trying to plan things out in advance, eventually realising my past mistakes, razing buildings to remodel entire city blocks, all the while trying to ensure all resources are produced in excess and simultaneously fighting off dragons and raiders.

Also, I don't mind the amount of content in the game, considering it only costs 10 €. I'd gladly pay 50 bucks for a full remake of Anno 1602, and this game is halfway there while costing only a fraction of that. If they patch in some more content over time, even better. And I'd be delighted to see them eventually release a decently sized add-on for 10 or 15 €.

Superposition, the latest benchmark by Unigine, has been released
12 Apr 2017 at 6:39 am UTC

Quoting: lucifertdarkWell they obviously haven't seen what Feral & Croteam are up to with Vulkan.
To be fair, they haven't. Well, nowadays they might have, but that tweet was made half a year ago, back when Croteam was still facing Vulkan driver issues with The Talos Principle and long before the Mad Max update happened.
That said, I'm pretty sure Doom had Vulkan support patched in sometime before the tweet, and that worked out rather well...

Homefront: The Revolution is starting to show signs that the Linux port is alive and coming
12 Sep 2016 at 9:46 pm UTC

Quoting: STiATThought CryEngine was far from a finished Linux support. Did I miss something?
CryEngine's Linux support went stable months ago. "Snow", another CE title, added Linux support some time ago (although it's not a great port, at least in my experience).

Homefront: The Revolution is starting to show signs that the Linux port is alive and coming
12 Sep 2016 at 8:27 pm UTC

Awesome! I really hope it turns out to be a decent port. I'm usually not much for first person shooters, but this game actually piqued my interest a while ago as it looks to be basically Far Cry, but in a (civil war-torn) city.

I'd kind of given up on the Linux version after the initial, mostly negative reception of the game; but the devs continue to support it on other platforms (apparently the Windows version recently got a 2.0 patch that fixed most performance issues and even adds a new type of anti-aliasing), so I guess it's not too unrealistic that they'd make true on their promised Linux support.

Physics-based 3D puzzler Human: Fall Flat released on Steam for Linux
26 Jul 2016 at 5:48 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: tuubiReminds me of Octodad, but that one's all about the silly story and always has clear objectives IIRC. Despite the slapstick and the occasional laughs I found the gameplay a bit frustrating.

This game on the other hand almost seems like it could be a bit too open and directionless. Even the playable character seems bland by design. Of course, the puzzles could be worth it. I'll have to check out some reviews. Or maybe wait for yours, once you're back from your trip.
The character looks "bland" by default because you can paint it any way you want.

Also, the game is actually separated into floating islands. There's a clear distinction between levels, so while it might look more open than Octodad at first, it's actually just as linear. And since you're not controlling your limbs separately, it's less frustrating to play. You basically move around as you'd expect from a third person game, except you're arms - if you decide to grab something - will be "aimed" by the camera (if you look up, you arms will point upwards; if you look down, you arms will point downwards; if you want to climb up a ledge, you jump toward it while looking at the sky, grab onto it at the right moment and then look downwards in order for your character to pull himself up - it may sound a little weird at first, but it's actually pretty intuitive).

User submission: Vulkan tutorials now up on github
13 Jul 2016 at 5:40 pm UTC Likes: 1

Impressive! I actually held off on learning Vulkan because I was told that you'd need a certain amount of experience with graphics programming to comprehend it. And since I just started playing around with OpenGL three months ago, I figured I'd never be able to get into Vulkan.

But if you managed to get by with knowledge based on ancient OpenGL... well, I guess I should give it a try. To bad I'll have to switch to C now - no Vulkan binding for Vala atm. Maybe I'll implement one myself someday...

REGoth Engine, an open source reimplentation for the game 'Gothic'
12 Jul 2016 at 2:20 pm UTC Likes: 1

Huh... apparently, it's by the same guy who made (and, as far as I know, still actively updates) the amazing DirectX 11 mod for Gothic 2. I hope he ends up implementing some of it's features (dynamic shadows, HDR, wet-surfaces, terrain tesselation, volumetric rain, polygonal waves, etc.) into this engine.

Also, since the article doesn't make it clear: this project aims to work for both Gothic and Gothic II (which makes sense, since the two games use pretty much the same engine).

LIMBO is free on Steam for 24 hours, grab it while you can
21 Jun 2016 at 6:06 pm UTC Likes: 4

Just to clarify, you don't actually have to download it, just click on the "Start game" button on the store page and the game is in your library.

SuperTuxKart, the open source racer has a new release with new tracks
16 Jun 2016 at 6:14 pm UTC

Quoting: edoon a haswell + nvidia 960m this game is unplayable, its really lacking optimization
That sounds like a bug or something - I'm getting ~ 30 fps on an Intel Celeron chip with integrated graphics (on low settings admittedly, but still...). Any semi-decent dedicated GPU (yes, even a mobile one) should be able to run this maxed out at 1080 without ever dropping below 60fps.

Does your CPU have an integrated graphics unit? If so, can you confirm that the game is actually using your Nvidia card?